Morning of Day Two - Oysterville

I woke up early Monday morning - around 5:30 a.m., thanks to the barking dog next door, but I guess that's to be expected when staying in a dog-friendly motel! Larry was already soaking in his eucalyptus-lavender scented tub, I started a pot of coffee, and took Duchess out for a chilly morning walk down the block. By the time 8:00 rolled around we were ready for the continental breakfast that the motel offered. It was great! Larry prepared some waffles for us both in the waffle-maker, and there was even marionberry syrup to slather over the top - yum! I grabbed a couple of apples for later in the day and we headed back to the room to get Duchess. She had been such a good girl - didn't tear up the bed or anything! We drove back to the beach and Larry and Duchess walked around while I stayed in the warm car!

We had seen an episode of Northwest Backroads a while ago in which they visited Long Beach. Larry remembered Marsh's Free Museum which they called "a shrine to the strange" and didn't want to miss it, so we were there when they opened their doors at 9 a.m.

 

There was a lot of "stuff" for sale, none of which struck my fancy. The mummified, always creepy Jake the Alligator Man is a Long Beach institution so I snapped his picture.

I have to say, we weren't too impressed with this place, so headed for Oysterville.

 The 80-acre Oysterville National Historic District has  Willapa Bay as its backdrop. Eight houses, a church, the Oysterville cannery and a one-room schoolhouse are on the National Register of Historic Places.

For generations before the settlers arrived, Chinook Indians gathered oysters in this part of Willapa Bay and camped in the area that is now Oysterville. They called it “tsako-te-hahsh-eetl” whichhad two meanings – “place of the red-topped grass” and “home of the yellowhammer,” the local name for the red-shafted flicker,

Oysterville was settled in 1854 by R.H. Espy and I. A. Clark. They had agreed on a rendezvous with Chief Nahcati who had told Espy of tidelands covered with oysters.

It was the California Gold Rush of 1849 that drew significant numbers of settlers of European descent to Oysterville. Espy and Clark marketed the bivalves in gold-rich San Francisco. There, a plate of oysters sold for a Mexican “slug” which was worth two and a half times a twenty dollar gold piece. Within a few months there were 500 settlers in Oysterville and in 1855 it became the county seat of Pacific County.

Once the county seat, with a college, two hotels and a weekly newspaper, the town began to decline when, in 1880, the long-awaited Clamshell Railroad ended at Nahcotta and native oysters began to become scarce.  finally, in 1893, the courthouse records were stolen by South Bend “raiders” Oysterville gradually became a sleepy little village where “time stood still.”

Today, the entire community is on the National Historic Register and the original one-room schoolhouse and church are still in use for community events.

The Oysterville Store & Post Office – 

The Oysterville Post Office has operated in Oysterville since 1858 and is the oldest continuously run Post Office under the same name in Washington. It has been in its present location since 1919.

Oysterville Schoolhouse – 1907
This is the third and last school in Oysterville and was used by Pacific County School District #1 until consolidation in 1957. The first school was a prefabricated building of “red wood” made in California and shipped aboard one of the oyster schooners in 1863. The booming community soon outgrew the “little red schoolhouse” and in 1874 a two-story building was built on this site, serving the community until it burned down in 1905.

The Oysterville Church – 1892
Built at a cost of $1500, the church was a gift to the Baptist denomination by R. H. Espy. No regular services have been held here since the mid-1930s. In 1980 the church was rededicated as an ecumenical house of worship. Music Vesper services conducted by ministers from various churches on the peninsula are held Sundays from mid-June through Labor Day Weekend.

R. H. Espy House – 1871
Robert Hamilton Espy, co-founder of Oysterville, built this house in 1871, shortly after he married. From 1854 until that time he had lived in a log cabin about 100 feet south and across the road. The “Red House” has remained in the Espy family for six generations.

R.H. Espy Family, 1895.  R.H. Espy co-founded the village/town of Oysterville, Washington.  He's sporting the beard. 


 Next stop - Oysterville Cemetery – 1858
Larry and I both love to wander around old cemeteries, even if we are not related to a single soul in them, so we definitely had to stop at one in Oysterville.

Begun in 1858 on land donated by F.C. Davis, the old section of the cemetery contains the graves of many pioneer families. Near the entrance is the grave of Chief Nahcati who befriended R. H. Espy and showed him the oyster beds.

 Just to the south, near the marker which reads “And the sea gave up its dead…” are the graves of unknown sailors who washed ashore nearby in the early days of Oysterville.

I'm always fascinated by the intricacy of the old gravestones - they usually tell a story. I wonder how long the sand dollars have guarded the one above.

Larry teases me by saying that when if I'm not spending time with dead people on Ancestry.com, I'm traipsing around a cemetery taking pictures! My fingers were cold, but I couldn't stop!

 A fancy gate surrounds this one.

  Some are so old the letters are no longer visible.

We left the cemetery and stopped at the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge.

  I was getting hungry, so we headed for Ocean Park to look for someplace to get lunch. The Berry Patch Diner looked promising, so I parked in front and we went inside to get something to go. We took a look at the menu - the prices were high, but we decided to get some halibut fish and chips rather than leaving and going someplace else. We took them down to the beach and were pleasantly surprised - they were delicious - worth every penny. And the seagulls had a feast on the fries that we couldn't finish.

 Larry and Duchess walked along the beach while I, once again, stayed in the warm car. This guy was very unhappy when I finally ran out of fries.

The day was still young, and Larry thought we should drive to Astoria so that he could face his fears of crossing the bridge, but first we had to check one more thing off our "to do" list - finding the world's largest frying pan!

The World's Largest Frying Pan in Long Beach is a year-long reminder of the town's annual Razor Clam Festival. It was forged in 1941 by command of the town's chamber of commerce. It stands 14 feet tall, is 9 feet 6 inches wide, and despite its name and impressive size it is not the World's Largest, having been surpassed in subsequent years by other towns with more ambitious plans and pans.
No longer operational, Long Beach's frying pan serves as a nice photo backdrop for families who couldn't get a decent picture in front of the Alligator Man across the street at Marsh's Free Museum.
- See more at: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2972#sthash.6W6Ks6oY.dpuf

The World's Largest Frying Pan in Long Beach is a year-long reminder of the town's annual Razor Clam Festival. It was forged in 1941 by command of the town's chamber of commerce. It stands 14 feet tall, is 9 feet 6 inches wide, and despite its name and impressive size it is not the World's Largest, having been surpassed in subsequent years by other towns with more ambitious plans and pans.
No longer operational, Long Beach's frying pan serves as a nice photo backdrop for families who couldn't get a decent picture in front of the Alligator Man across the street at Marsh's Free Museum.
- See more at: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2972#sthash.6W6Ks6oY.dpuf

It  is actually a fiberglass recreation of the original cast iron behemoth that was used in the town’s Clam Festival in 1941. As part of its initial display at the festival, a woman strapped bacon to her feet and hopped inside the pan carrying a giant spatula. After the clam celebration, the oversized oddity traveled around the West Coast, but Long Beach had a replica built to forever remember their part in its creation. The surface of the pan is over nine feet across and the tip of the handle is almost 15 feet off the ground. Glad to get that out of the way!

Next post - the Astoria-Megler Bridge!

The World's Largest Frying Pan in Long Beach is a year-long reminder of the town's annual Razor Clam Festival. It was forged in 1941 by command of the town's chamber of commerce. It stands 14 feet tall, is 9 feet 6 inches wide, and despite its name and impressive size it is not the World's Largest, having been surpassed in subsequent years by other towns with more ambitious plans and pans.
No longer operational, Long Beach's frying pan serves as a nice photo backdrop for families who couldn't get a decent picture in front of the Alligator Man across the street at Marsh's Free Museum.
- See more at: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2972#sthash.Rrso6X8K.dpuf

The World's Largest Frying Pan in Long Beach is a year-long reminder of the town's annual Razor Clam Festival. It was forged in 1941 by command of the town's chamber of commerce. It stands 14 feet tall, is 9 feet 6 inches wide, and despite its name and impressive size it is not the World's Largest, having been surpassed in subsequent years by other towns with more ambitious plans and pans.
No longer operational, Long Beach's frying pan serves as a nice photo backdrop for families who couldn't get a decent picture in front of the Alligator Man across the street at Marsh's Free Museum.
- See more at: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2972#sthash.6W6Ks6oY.dpuf

Long Beach - Day One

We left home around 8 a.m. Sunday morning, heading for Long Beach. Our first stop, of course, was Highmark Espresso, our favorite coffee spot in Clearview. The newbie barista was the only one on duty and she doesn't realize that the first thing to be taken care of is the handing out of dog treats. Duchess waited patiently, staring at her while she fixed the coffees, gave me a questioning look, and finally, after Larry and I had our drinks, the girl  said, "would your dog like a biscuit?" Of course! We were all happy then, and merrily went on our way. That girl did make one good Salted Caramel Mocha, though!

We wanted to stop at PCC for some snack items for the trip and decided to go to the Green Lake location, which was right off the freeway.

We wandered around a bit and choose a couple of fancy cheeses and an assortment of olives. Our plan was to pick up a something from the salad bar for later, but it wasn't set up yet. No problem - we had plenty to see us through until dinner time.

We drove and drove, eventually needing a rest stop, but there were none to be found! We passed one on the other side of the freeway, but we couldn't get to it! What to do? We exited at Montesano, found a service station, waited in a long bathroom line, and were ready to hit the road again. Larry informed me that I would be driving the rest of the way, so I grabbed a Luna bar and hopped in the driver's seat.

We stopped at Cape Disappointment State Park, because Larry had read about the North Head Lighthouse there.

It was a beautiful, short hike to the lighthouse and we were so glad that we had made the side trip to see it.

 

The lighthouse keepers' residences were up on a hill. What a view to wake up to every morning.

North Head Lighthouse was built to provide an aide to navigation for ships approaching from the north. Those ships could not see Cape Disappointment lighthouse, two miles to the south, in time to safely enter the Columbia River channel.

Construction began on North Head lighthouse in 1897 and it was completed and lit on May 16, 1898.  The lighthouse was constructed by George Langford, an early contractor and builder from Portland, Oregon. The tower was built 65 feet above the ground, designed large enough to hold the First-order Fresnel lens transferred from Cape Disappointment lighthouse.

At the same time the lighthouse was being constructed, construction workers built two oil houses just to the east of the lighthouse. A keeper’s residence, a duplex to house two assistant keepers, a barn, and outbuildings were also constructed at that time. All of the original buildings are still located on site.

Lighthouse keepers and their families had a remote and hard life. Keepers would traditionally work 8 hour shifts if there were three keepers. If one of the keepers left, the hours would become much longer. The light was lit from dusk to dawn with cleaning and polishing being done during the daylight hours. The cleaning and maintenance of the light and lens was the most important duty of the keepers.

The first head lighthouse keeper at North Head was Alex K. Pesonen. He was placed in charge of North Head lighthouse on May 16, 1898, the day the lighthouse was put into service.

Keeper Pesonen had at one time served on the lighthouse tender “Manzanita” and as an assistant keeper at Tillamook lighthouse. He lived at North Head for 26 years.

Pesonen's wife, Mary, is believed to have jumped to her death off a cliff near the lighthouse on June 9, 1923. A newspaper reported she woke before her husband that morning to take her usual short walk with the family dog, but she never returned. The keeper's little dog, which always accompanied Mary on her walks, came back and acted strangely. The dog led searchers to a spot where they found her coat on the edge of the cliff. Her body drifted in with the tide and was found in a cove just beyond the couple's garden, the newspaper reported.

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article32061981.html#storylink=cpy

During the time Pesonen was head keeper, he had a second assistant keeper by the name of Mabel E. Bretherton. She was the only female keeper assigned to North Head lighthouse. From 1905 until her resignation on October 31, 1907 she assisted in the care and operation of the light. Mabel Bretherton had also served at Cape Blanco lighthouse in Oregon prior to coming to North Head.

The lighthouse transitioned to full automation in 1961, and the two light keeper houses were converted to state park offices and park ranger housing

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article32061981.html#storylink=cpy

In 2000, the historic homes were converted to vacation rentals.

It was getting close to check-in time, so we headed down the road to Long Beach, but first we visited  the beach.

We checked into room #14 at the Coastal Inn...

It was a very nice little room and it did indeed have a sparkling bathtub, just like Larry had read in the Yelp reviews...

Rachel had suggested that we take a getaway so that we could take a bath and sent us a gift card to help make that come true. Thank you, Rachel!!!

After checking out the room, we headed back to the beach!

It was a bit chilly, but we had warm coats and gloves.

Driving on the beach was so much fun!

We had asked the girl who checked us into the motel where to find good fish and chips - she didn't know about that, but told us which of the two Thai restaurants was best, so we picked up a to-go menu and called in an order when we got back to the motel. The woman said to give her twenty-five minutes, but when we got there to pick it up, she said, "No, you didn't place an order with us!" I was tempted to leave, but finally she said, "OK", and went back to begin cooking! Larry and I sat down at one of the tables and waited patiently. At last the food came, I paid, but no tip for her!!!

The restaurants Yelp review had mentioned generous portions - not! Larry and I each had one scallop, but the flavor was great and Duchess managed to get a couple of the shrimp, so she was a happy girl!

Larry filled the tub up and soon the room smelled delightfully of Dr. Teal's eucalyptus bath salts - wonderful stuff!

 I got Rachel's box of lavender bath goodies out and he added a generous dollop of bubble bath. I even shared the delicious Ghirardelli Cabernet chocolate bar with him!

I poured myself a glass of wine, put in my earbuds, and listened to music while he soaked...

A pleasant ending to day one of our Long Beach experience...